Conor McGregor Has a Brilliant Career Tactic (and You Could Learn a Lot From It)

Knowing when and how to do this in your career could help you in the future.

For those of you not familiar with the Conor McGregor, he's an Irish professional mixed martial artist and professional boxer. Known to his fans as, "The Notorious," his claim to fame is his versatility. While most UFC fighters excel in one specific type of fighting discipline, he's well-trained in several - making him lethal to opponents who are less diverse.

If you want your career to continue, it's important to know when it pivot.

After a successful career in MMA fighting (a.k.a. cage fights), McGregor is now moving into the boxing arena. His first fight will be against Floyd Mayweather Jr., a boxing world champion who's coming out of retirement just for this opportunity. It's a highly publicized match-up. As a career expert, I can tell you it's a very smart move. Why? It's providing two key elements to career longevity:

1) New exposure for his personal brand.

Like many singers who eventually cross-over into other music genres as a way to gain more fans, McGregor's move into boxing introduces his personal brand to a whole new group of people who will start to follow him. The more followers, the more money he makes in endorsements, etc.

2) Expansion of his network.

Working in a different vertical within his industry is giving him the opportunity to meet and collaborate with a new group of professionals. As we preach at Work It Daily, "your network is your net worth." McGregor knows the more people he works with, the easier it will be attract opportunities - both now and in the future.

Understanding when to pivot in your own career is pretty important these days. Given every job is temporary and another recession is likely to occur in the near future, the more visibility and connections you have, the better the chances your career can handle an unexpected curve ball.

3) He won't fight forever (and he's wise enough to know it).

McGregor understands his personal brand is his biggest asset. From the clothes he wears (he's also notorious for being a classy dresser), to the people who chooses to fight, McGregor realizes the bigger and better his personal brand, the easier it will be to keep his career going - long after he steps out of the ring. Today, we're all businesses-of-one who need to market ourselves to stay employable long-term. When done correctly, knowing when to make a strategic career pivot is one of those key moments that can provide a huge ROI.